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Latest from WBEZ Chicago Public RadioenGroup pushes for soil tests around power planthttp://www.wbez.org/news/group-pushes-soil-tests-around-power-plant-103117
<p><p><img alt="" class="image-original_image" src="http://www.wbez.org/system/files/styles/original_image/llo/insert-images/Fisk_station_Vance.jpg" style="margin: 4px 0px 0px; float: left; height: 225px; width: 300px; " title="Midwest Generation in August shut down its Fisk Station, built in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood in 1903. (Flickr/Steven Vance)" /></p><p>A company that is decommissioning Chicago&rsquo;s last two coal-fired power plants insists there are no hazards on either site, but a neighborhood group is pressing for soil tests and for disclosure of the results.</p><p>Midwest Generation, a subsidiary of California-based Edison International, shut down its Fisk and Crawford stations in August. The company says it is talking with about two dozen potential buyers of the sites.</p><p>A task force set up by Mayor Rahm Emanuel&rsquo;s office reported last month that the sites could now be used for light manufacturing and could offer public access to the nearby Chicago River.</p><p>But a report coming out Saturday says residents of the city&rsquo;s Pilsen neighborhood, where Fisk stands, want something done first.</p><p>&ldquo;Their number-one concern was, &#39;How is that site going to get cleaned up, how do we know it&rsquo;s not going to be a danger in the future, and how do we know what&rsquo;s there right now in terms of pollution and contamination?&#39; &rdquo; said Jerry Mead-Lucero, organizer of the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization, which held neighborhood forums and surveyed residents.</p><p>Midwest Generation President Douglas McFarlan said the public has nothing to fear about coal, ash and liquid fuel that his company and its predecessors stored near the plants. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing inherently dangerous at the sites,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>McFarlan said Midwest Generation would comply with environmental regulations and said any cleanup would depend on the interests of the buyers.</p><p>Fisk was built in 1903. Crawford, which stands in the Little Village neighborhood, began operating in 1924.</p><p>The closings resulted from falling energy prices and federal clean-air enforcement that required retrofitting the plants. Activists had campaigned for more than a decade to close the generators or curb their harmful emissions, which included soot and carbon dioxide, a contributor to global warming.</p></p>Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:31:00 -0500http://www.wbez.org/news/group-pushes-soil-tests-around-power-plant-103117